Anyone remember a time when radio seemed friendly and informative, rather than hostile and manipulative?

I do. And I remember when it changed in 1996, after Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act
into law, and suddenly, huge corporations like Clear Channel began
using our public airwaves -- those scarce radio frequencies which are
owned by us ALL -- as a hammer to pummel Clinton and all other
Democrats.

There is a little known regulation at the FCC called the Zapple Doctrine, which is an offshoot of the Fairness Doctrine and of Section 315(a) of
the Communications Act, which says that, in the 60 days prior to an
election, if a broadcaster offers free airtime to one major party
candidate, it must offer free airtime to the other major party
candidate. Zapple expands this definition to include supporters of candidates.

The only programs which are exempt from this definition must qualify
as "Bonafide News." To qualify as "bonafide news," programs must be
non-political and not support any candidates.

What an interesting regulation. Gee, if I could only prove that stations were violating it, but what a task.

Luckily, last fall, when I toured Wisconsin with my film Broadcast Blues,
I met people in the Milwaukee area who were incensed that the five --
count them, five -- local talk radio hosts and their guests and callers
were using our public airwaves on WISN and WTMJ to exclusively promote
GOP candidates. Republican victors were crediting Talk Radio with their
wins. Unions were crying because they were pouring thousands of
dollars into advertising for their candidates on those stations, only to
have those stations hammer them with free time.

Then, the Wisconsin recall of Governor Scott Walker presented a
golden opportunity: in this 28 day election, perhaps we could monitor
the stations, see if they were in violation, and if so, complain to the
FCC midway through to enforce the Zapple Doctrine.

So we found five monitors and had them count how many minutes each
program was specifically supporting Scott Walker or bashing his
Democratic opponent Tom Barrett, or supporting the GOP and bashing
Democrats, and vice versa, how many minutes they were supporting
Democrats in the race.

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We discovered
that each Right Wing Talk radio station in Milwaukee is giving about 80
minutes every day to the GOP side. Out of fifteen hours of
programming, that doesn't sound like much, but it would cost between
$34,000 and $68,000 for supporters of Tom Barrett and the Democrats to
buy that time. That's $34,000-68,000 every single day.

But are these shows "bonafide news?" Can they be exempted from the rule?

When you have show hosts who are actively telling listeners to vote
for Walker, when you have show hosts who are on the air recruiting
volunteers for the Walker campaign, that would seem to indicate
"political intent." And when you have the business community bragging
about how Conservative Talk Radio is winning elections for the GOP, so business needs to expand Talk Radio into more and more local radio markets, political intent seems pretty clear.

So May 24, with just twelve days left on the campaign period, I filed a formal complaint with the FCC, asking they immediately grant Barrett supporters the comparable time to which they are entitled on our public airwaves.